Tobacco-free campus a good idea

Copyright 2012: Houston Chronicle

Updated 6:21 pm, Monday, June 18, 2012

Observers on the University of Houston campus this week noted the irony of seeing people taking cigarette breaks in front of the M.D. Anderson Library, which bears the same name as the world-famous cancer center across town. But the days of irony may be numbered, with the university proposing a total ban on the use, sale, advertising and sampling of all tobacco products on the 667-acre main campus ("There'll be no ifs, ands or butts at UH," Page A1, Saturday).

The immediate driver of the ban is a $6.9 million grant to UH from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), which requires recipient institutions to be tobacco-free. But it also continues a steadily expanding anti-smoking policy, which already limits where people can smoke on campus. When the ban is fully implemented, UH will join the ranks of more than 700 universities and colleges that are 100 percent smoke-free, including the University of Texas at Austin.

There is bound to be some push back, with arguments that the university should not get involved in personal decisions. But smoking isn't merely personal: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, secondhand smoke is a carcinogen in itself, responsible for thousands of lung cancer deaths every year. People on campus shouldn't have to walk through clouds of addictive poison. As the Chronicle's Monica Rhor quoted one UH senior: "You can't drink openly, so why can you smoke?"

As a public institution, UH should be working for the public good - and in this circumstance, that good is reducing the number of smokers in Houston. And the lack of strong objections to the University Coordination Commission hints that smokers grasp that fact.

Houston isn't always known for its clean air and healthy living, a problem that we should try to change. Every step counts, and UH is leading our city in the right direction.